This is a beautiful line: Tell them you’re from catfish and grits, and Soup Joumou on the first day of the year. One for good luck, the other for liberation - double the blessing.
I loved the video!! You can feel the tender love and care. Hmm very to the point but my gma always says, “never give up. God will take care/see you through”. And I’ve been on the verge of a give up many a time (literally as I speak) and I can just hear her saying hold on. Thanks for that reminder :)
Beautiful to read, even better listening to your lilting, loving voice. The video is touching...not raw at all. Myles is watching and bonding and feeling you care so tenderly. Great writing as always, Marc 😊
The video is such a wonderful addition to this piece !!!! Your narration of your work is beautiful. It completely changes the experience as the reader, making your already poetic words more emotive and powerful. I think for these shorter pieces you do, the video element could be a real game changer! A flawless marry up of the new feature & ‘old’ format. The video doesn’t take away from or overshadow the writing, only adds to it.
Thank you for this feedback! The videos are a lot more work, but I had fun creating it with the voice over. I’ll see if I can keep it up. I’m really enjoying testing my limits.
Thank you for sharing Sophia. This is a helpful reminder that a lot of this is not in our control! Just have to be present. Have you been able to teach her any Vietnamese?
Definitely! But also hard to gain perspective in those early days, when you're tracking wet diapers and ounces of milk and sleep times.
Re: teaching my daughter Vietnamese, I'm happy to share my answer, but it will take more than a comment—shoot me an email at hello at sophiale dot com.
Love the poem, and the video to accompany it. It's so amazing to hear a poet read his/her poems aloud. It animates the work in the most tangible, personal way. Thanks so much for doing that. I've lost whole afternoons down the youtube rabbit hole listening to every recording Billy Collins has ever made. Time well spent. I did something similar based on Genealogy, by Betsy Sholl (https://www2.oberlin.edu/ocpress/FIELD/81.html#2) in a writing class last year. It was really interesting. And, oh, how I love a poetry prompt! It's like having a co-pilot on what you thought would be a solo flight. Thanks for the Monday morning inspiration.
Your words so beautiful, as always. You did it! I’m so glad you followed your curiosity about the voiceover and the video-so tender and sweet. His little hands pawing at you as you tended to him. 🥹 And the screwing of the lid back on the Aquaphor-a ritual I’ve done likely thousands of times in my son’s 4 years. I could hear it. These precious rituals. 💖
As a Liberian girl who grew up in various suburbs of Birmingham, AL my speech patterns have always painted me as “not from here.” I had a coworker say I must be a “Yankee” during my first year teaching because he couldn’t place my neutral accent.
Myles will learn that there’s beauty in life in the borderlands.
You know I am new here. The amount of times I get ask where am I from is a bit unsettling. First time someone is able to tell that even though I am Black, being from NY and Haitian makes me different.
"From I ain't studdin you to pa jwe avèm, two tongues masterfully woven in a language only you can understand."
Every line, every line just knocks the wind out of me. You've taken the question, "where are you from?" so often asked with a negative connotation, and given your son a gift with which to respond. Love love love.
I knew when I read the title this was gonna be a gooood one! Saw the video without sound. Beautiful! I realised baby Myles is a tiny bundle of joy! Reading your letters I see him as an intelligent young boy! I think I need to start writing some more letters for my kid. Inspirational stuff! My parents always said to be proud of my heritage! I am! Only that we live in a world where where we’re from gets destroyed and our heritage turned into caricatures…
I really want to encourage everyone, especially dads, to write their kids. I wish someone did this for me. Your last line of your comment goes deep. Would love to hear more of your thoughts on it!
Thank you! I hope your family is well. If only each person took some time and charge and told their own family and children where they are from. But many who move countries voluntarily or involuntarily are so into assimilating into the new that they forget the old. As we forget our old home, others take over, disassemble values, cultures, resources and you end up with faint memories while others destroy your country by military war, financial war, psychological war and so on. Then you have the opposite. People rejecting the new and living in the old. It creates a divide. This constant move of forcing people to move creates a rootlessness. People don’t know where they are from… and so it goes. You make a home. How do you tell them who you are if you don’t know. I don’t want to dwell on here and your beautiful poem letter. But this is what I see around me. The conversation runs through many aspects of society. Does it make sense? What do you think?
This is beautiful, Marc. Every line is perfect! Years ago I co-taught a “Where I’m From” poetry unit. We used a bunch of different examples to get our students rolling, but my favorite was always the Digable Planets song, “Where I’m From.” So catchy and well written!! 🎶
This is a beautiful line: Tell them you’re from catfish and grits, and Soup Joumou on the first day of the year. One for good luck, the other for liberation - double the blessing.
Thank you family. You know about Soup Joumou 👀?
I do!
Oh man this is great! 👌🙌
Thank you, David!
I loved the video!! You can feel the tender love and care. Hmm very to the point but my gma always says, “never give up. God will take care/see you through”. And I’ve been on the verge of a give up many a time (literally as I speak) and I can just hear her saying hold on. Thanks for that reminder :)
Dajahnae, thank you for your kind words. Whatever it is, it is already taken care. Wishing you love all the way from over here.
Beautiful 🥰
Thank you Elaine!
Beautiful to read, even better listening to your lilting, loving voice. The video is touching...not raw at all. Myles is watching and bonding and feeling you care so tenderly. Great writing as always, Marc 😊
Thank you Joan!
The video is such a wonderful addition to this piece !!!! Your narration of your work is beautiful. It completely changes the experience as the reader, making your already poetic words more emotive and powerful. I think for these shorter pieces you do, the video element could be a real game changer! A flawless marry up of the new feature & ‘old’ format. The video doesn’t take away from or overshadow the writing, only adds to it.
Thank you for this feedback! The videos are a lot more work, but I had fun creating it with the voice over. I’ll see if I can keep it up. I’m really enjoying testing my limits.
"My wife and I come from two beautiful yet different backgrounds. How do you balance giving a child both?"
I'm second-generation Vietnamese, my husband is white, and the answer I've come up so far for our biracial daughter is you make it up as you go :)
Thank you for sharing Sophia. This is a helpful reminder that a lot of this is not in our control! Just have to be present. Have you been able to teach her any Vietnamese?
Definitely! But also hard to gain perspective in those early days, when you're tracking wet diapers and ounces of milk and sleep times.
Re: teaching my daughter Vietnamese, I'm happy to share my answer, but it will take more than a comment—shoot me an email at hello at sophiale dot com.
Love the poem, and the video to accompany it. It's so amazing to hear a poet read his/her poems aloud. It animates the work in the most tangible, personal way. Thanks so much for doing that. I've lost whole afternoons down the youtube rabbit hole listening to every recording Billy Collins has ever made. Time well spent. I did something similar based on Genealogy, by Betsy Sholl (https://www2.oberlin.edu/ocpress/FIELD/81.html#2) in a writing class last year. It was really interesting. And, oh, how I love a poetry prompt! It's like having a co-pilot on what you thought would be a solo flight. Thanks for the Monday morning inspiration.
I love this poem you shared. I use to use “Introduction to Poetry” by Collin’s to get my students interested in poetry!
I love this for Myles to grow up and read. I think he gone eat this one up haha.
Thank you, Disney.
Just trying to stack as many as I can here!
Your words so beautiful, as always. You did it! I’m so glad you followed your curiosity about the voiceover and the video-so tender and sweet. His little hands pawing at you as you tended to him. 🥹 And the screwing of the lid back on the Aquaphor-a ritual I’ve done likely thousands of times in my son’s 4 years. I could hear it. These precious rituals. 💖
My favorite part is when I change him and he reaches to play with my arms 🥹. It really makes me so happy! Thanks for watching and reading Kaitlyn!
Love the added elements of the audio and video!
As a Liberian girl who grew up in various suburbs of Birmingham, AL my speech patterns have always painted me as “not from here.” I had a coworker say I must be a “Yankee” during my first year teaching because he couldn’t place my neutral accent.
Myles will learn that there’s beauty in life in the borderlands.
You know I am new here. The amount of times I get ask where am I from is a bit unsettling. First time someone is able to tell that even though I am Black, being from NY and Haitian makes me different.
"From I ain't studdin you to pa jwe avèm, two tongues masterfully woven in a language only you can understand."
Every line, every line just knocks the wind out of me. You've taken the question, "where are you from?" so often asked with a negative connotation, and given your son a gift with which to respond. Love love love.
Ok I just watched the video. Hearing you read it was lovely and added another dimension. ❤️❤️
This was inspired by our last conversation around using more voice overs. I was like, well might as add a video too!
My parents are from Nicaragua but I was born here so I’m proud to be American and Nicaraguan at the same time!
I knew when I read the title this was gonna be a gooood one! Saw the video without sound. Beautiful! I realised baby Myles is a tiny bundle of joy! Reading your letters I see him as an intelligent young boy! I think I need to start writing some more letters for my kid. Inspirational stuff! My parents always said to be proud of my heritage! I am! Only that we live in a world where where we’re from gets destroyed and our heritage turned into caricatures…
I really want to encourage everyone, especially dads, to write their kids. I wish someone did this for me. Your last line of your comment goes deep. Would love to hear more of your thoughts on it!
Thank you! I hope your family is well. If only each person took some time and charge and told their own family and children where they are from. But many who move countries voluntarily or involuntarily are so into assimilating into the new that they forget the old. As we forget our old home, others take over, disassemble values, cultures, resources and you end up with faint memories while others destroy your country by military war, financial war, psychological war and so on. Then you have the opposite. People rejecting the new and living in the old. It creates a divide. This constant move of forcing people to move creates a rootlessness. People don’t know where they are from… and so it goes. You make a home. How do you tell them who you are if you don’t know. I don’t want to dwell on here and your beautiful poem letter. But this is what I see around me. The conversation runs through many aspects of society. Does it make sense? What do you think?
This is beautiful, Marc. Every line is perfect! Years ago I co-taught a “Where I’m From” poetry unit. We used a bunch of different examples to get our students rolling, but my favorite was always the Digable Planets song, “Where I’m From.” So catchy and well written!! 🎶
Your son is gonna love these letters someday.
Thought I responded to this. You just put me on to a new song. Going to check it out!
You remind us the blending of cultures is one of the greatest blessings in this world.
Watched and listened as your gentle hands cared for your son. Such tenderness. Beautiful.
Thank you Patris! Really hesitated on attaching the vid. Glad I did!